Prophecy of the Fox
by Angry Nazar
Summary: Number two of the Postbellum series, sequel to The Burden of Bending. Since the times of Avatar Kyoshi, a prophecy is spreading in the Fire Nation, spread out of the nation only by the sailors because they believe there won't be many Ninetales out of the Fire Nation. After the Hundred Years' War, this prophecy is about to be realized. WARNING: Chara death and slight swearing.


_Disclaimer: _Pokemon_ and _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ belong to their respective owners. This fanfic is A: tLA-centric. Jun (my OC) has very different background from Jun (Earth Kingdom bounty hunter, from A: tLA franchise).  
_

_By the way, the fic's timeline starts pretty much immediately after events in _The Burden of Bending_, although the core events happens a few months later. Anyway, enjoy _^_^

* * *

_~ Prelude to the Prophecy ~_

* * *

There's a prophecy, anonymously foretold, spread in the Fire Nation since a few years after Avatar Kuruk died, known as _Prophecy of the Fox_, which runs thus:

_When a Ninetales does not curse the one who seized her tail, she will instead curse her master into insanity.  
Transforms for but a brief, she will rewire his senses, tricking him to see things not the way it is normally.  
She will lose her life as his sanity vanishes, as he believes all he touches turns into gold instantly.  
To reasons he is deaf, so disrupted he will, no one can cure him from her curse for all eternity._

Many Fire Nation citizens of all class – farmers, merchants, noblemen, even the last three ruling Fire Lords: Azulon, Ozai, and Zuko – found this prophecy not worthwhile to bother, for it was over three hundred years since the prophecy started to spread, yet every female Ninetales (Remember 'she'? The Prophecy explicitly mentions that the Ninetales who lays the curse is a female.) within the Fire Nation seems to curse any foreigner who touches her tail, even when it was accidentally touched.

However, there's one thing about the prophecy: the Prophecy didn't say, explicitly or implicitly, that it will be fulfilled in the Fire Nation, yet the Fire Nation has never shared this prophecy to the rest of the world, save by a few daring sailors that braved the seas to the other bending nations, be it the Air Nomad, Earth Kingdom, Southern Water Tribe, or the Northern Water Tribe. It's not that it's a top secret not to be known out of the Fire Nation, it's just that they believe that there won't be a significant amount of Ninetales out of the Fire Nation.

As the flames of the Hundred Years' War erupts, no Fire Nation trading ships were allowed to trade out of the Fire Nation for reasons obvious. All private ships caught within the Fire Nation territory after the Air Nomad Genocide viable for combat are drafted into privateers or be wrecked. As the War finally resolved, although the Fire Nation reopens its outward trading policy, practically no sailor from the Fire Nation remembers this prophecy, as it has been forgotten as time passes.

* * *

(/-/-/qxOxp\-\-\)

* * *

_An autumn on Lake Laogai, four years after the Hundred Years' War was over..._

Earlier that day, a cabbage merchant got his cart full of cabbages, only to be decimated by a white being, eerily similar not to a human, but to a pig instead. (_**A/N: Readers of **_**One Day in Laogai – **_**retitled to **_**The Burden of Bending –**_** might identify this as Bingfa, Hide's Pignite/Emboar who decimated the cabbage cart when he was evolving.**_) Out of anger, he moaned as he found out the fate of his cabbages, only to be then captured by the Dai Li. However, soon after the Dai Li captured him, he was set free again, as they have captured the wrong person.

These days, the Dai Li are assigned to capture a firebender, notorious for its 'dangerous deals', of which no one involved with his deal returned in one piece. He is said to have a white, short beard and a habit of masquerading as an innocent around the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se, only to then trick them into the 'dangerous deal' that always get the other party of the deal seriously injured, dead, or seriously delirious.

_Let's get back to our (unlucky) cabbage merchant..._

Frustrated, he decides to ask his fortune to a lakeside fortune teller that introduces himself as Cao. In front of him is a furnace and a heap of bones.

"Good evening, sir. What should I answer?" asked Cao.

"I have trouble deciding if I should keep selling cabbages," answered the cabbage merchant.

"Okay, pick your bone," Cao instructed. After he picked it, Cao then continued, "Good. Now, let's put it on the furnace, so I can see your destiny."

One minute passed. No crack.

Three minutes passed. No cracks still. 'I wonder what's wrong with this,' mumbled the two of them.

Five minutes passed. No visible cracks whatsoever. "Sir, I guess... your future is beyond my reach to comprehend. I am sorry," Cao concluded.

"Ah, fine then," the cabbage merchant replied in smoldering anger, paying the fortune teller, then leaves.

He then consulted to two more fortune teller – Liu, who uses palm-reading, and Sun, who relies on the clouds to make his forecast – only to get similar results with Cao: no discernible result. In despair, he decides to give up on seeing fortune tellers and start selling cabbages again. Maybe he'll move to a greener pasture, first.

* * *

_Six months later, Northwestern Laogai Lakefront..._

He did not expect that a simple change of place can net him so much increase of profit! Selling cabbages on Eastern Laogai Lakefront didn't net him much profit because there are so few food stalls willing to buy his cabbage; the walls were said to be invincible, but the Siege of Ba Sing Se have pretty much disproved it, and ten years might yet be insufficient to restore their confidence to set stalls with the Outer Wall on their back. On Northwestern Laogai Lakefront, however, not only there are more food courts, some of them has the Inner Wall on their back, but some tourists and villagers also buys the cabbages.

(True, the Inner Wall has been breached, too, but they know better that it happened during the war, and the war's no more.)

However, with a spike of success, comes an unwanted attention. A bully once tried to off this man, only to get himself offed by the Dai Li even before the cabbage merchant realized anything was afoot. The bully, soon, bribed himself out of jail and operates again in the Lower Ring.

By the way, the Dai Li had yet to actually send the mysterious firebender to trial. A Dai Li officer once heard a rumor that this firebender was once Long Feng's right hand man, without Long Feng knowing that he was a firebender. Instead, he believed that this man is a non-bender.

_Meanwhile, in a house within the Upper Ring..._

One day, Ran, a Lotus apprentice and an earthbender, is having a time with some time with Ikari, her family's Ninetales, and Ming, her Glaceon. She only registered Ming as her companion to the Lotus because Ikari was more of a family pet. Ran was reading a newspaper while Ikari and Ming were having fun themselves. Ikari had silver-tipped tails (and _nine_ of 'em :p), but otherwise she has nothing different from typical Ninetales.

Actually, Ikari was registered with her father, Kogoro, as her current master. (Ninetales are well-known for its noticeably long lifetimes, that it is said to live a thousand years. It is not that hard of a matter to find one that were born before Avatar Aang was born and still alive until this time, though how long one can actually live is still a matter of hot debate.) However, 'thanks' to his abusive deeds to her lately, her affection has shifted to Ran, who actually cares for her after Ran's mother died. In fact, the matter got so far that she had made some sort of ... exclusion, if you will, that only Ran and Ming – _but not Kogoro_ – can touch her tails unscathed, provided it didn't shock her.

Beneath her fiery looks, she is actually a decent swimmer and a waterbender. (In cases where the pokemon's native element contradicts its bending practice, the bending pokemon can work well with its native element or its bending element. Usually, it will work better with its native element.) True, she is not a bloodbender like Hikari or Xue (check again _The Burden of Bending _if you forgot who are they :p) are, and some Ninetales can actually swim, but... a _waterbending,_ _fire-type _pokemon? Seriously, that's a nasty stuff only the three ladies knew. It's not her all, still. We'll find out in time.

Ming also had a contradictory side, too: she's an ice-type pokemon, yet she only has a light fever when a heat wave struck Ba Sing Se last summer, which could've easily killed a weaker ice-type. Confused? All will be cleared in time, too.

_But I digress~_

What abusive deed, you may ask? Ikari had a grudge with Ran's father, Kogoro, who have a habit to trick innocent peoples (as she deems) to _jerk_ her tails, eventually forcing her to curse the victim by reflex. She had to endure this since two years after Long Feng was dislodged from his position as the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se and the head of the Dai Li just as the Hundred Years' War ended, although she had only discovered that she was forced to curse anyone he deems as his 'enemy' by the beginning of last winter. From that time, she decided she had enough. She decided to try not to curse the innocent her master send to her, but sometimes her reflexes betrayed her, and sometimes Kogoro will vent his anger at anything he can reach, not limited to her, Ming, and Ran.

After she completely understood the terrain around the Firelight Fountain, his favorite 'hunting place' since last summer (under a pretense that she asks Ran to take a walk to the fountain, which Ran knew what does the walk meant to Ikari), she got a plan ready. Three days from now, she is asked to accompany Kogoro's 'hunt' at Firelight Fountain. Aware of what this means, she concocted a timeline to concoct a plan to make his last hunt in the summer... memorable.

* * *

_~ Prophecy of the Fox ~_

* * *

_Three days later, near a restaurant in the Lower Ring..._

It was the first day in the summer.

The cabbage merchant was selling his cabbage to a woman that found his cabbage to be delicious as her customers say. After she bought about ten heads of cabbage, a man appears before the merchant. The man introduced himself as Akechi.

"I can offer you something to make your cabbages sell more," Akechi said, successfully taking the merchant's attention. "How?" he asked eagerly.

"There are a few silvery tails around the Firelight Fountain. If you can take all of them I hope you'll be sure to sell them to the market for a nifty price, so you can buy and sell more cabbages," he said.

"Really? Thanks!" the merchant rushed to the fountain, unaware to what Akechi had planned. Akechi, however, is also unaware that the tails the cabbage merchant will take is... unusual, to say the least.

_A few minutes later, Firelight Fountain..._

Silently, Akechi creeps into his favorite post. Unfortunately, from his position, he can't see if it's really Ikari down there or it is just a bunch of lifeless tails, and Ikari knew that well. She also had the habit to let her tails kept unmoving when they're on 'his hunt' (or the victim might be scared to the death), a habit she acquired from his pressure. As the clueless merchant approaches the tails, the merchant picks the nine tails happily.

'Get outta here, fast,' he heard a voice inside his mind. He hesitates, but before he made up his mind, a Ninetales appears with a scary face. He then runs helter-skelter without further ado.

Of course, Akechi is furious when he sees his victim-to-be ran in one piece. In anger, he stomped to the Firelight Fountain, planning to pull Ikari on her collar. However, on the spot the merchant collected the tails, he saw a collar – a spiked collar – that feels so similar for him. 'Has she...,' he mumbled in horror, not knowing what to expect.

'That's right, Kogoro Akechi,' a sinister voice rang in his mind. Ikari leaped up to him from his back, her fangs in fire. Kogoro barely dodges the charging vixen in time.

"Ikari, this is the last straw. Follow me or you'll see what I'll do to you," he threatens, preparing his firebending form. She defiantly charges upon him once more, only to be greeted by his fire.

What astonishes him is that instead of flinching in pain, she seems to revel the fire, as if she had gained a strength or something. Seriously, Kogoro knew to hide his firebending so well he never practiced it on his mansion.

After she lands on solid ground, she runs down an alley before he regained his senses, taking a mental note to turn right on the second junction, then left on the first. She knows that it will lead to a dead end, but he doesn't. There, she stopped, waiting for something.

_Meanwhile, at the Akechi Mansion, in the Upper Ring..._

As Ran prepares for a walk with Ming to the Middle Ring, she heard a voice in her mind, 'Ran, I need you soon. Meet me at the Firelight Fountain. Take Ming with you too, I know what caused her illness.' Ming was rather unfit the last three days, during which Ikari has an unusually shifty emotions; now she seems to be happy, but leave her for a few minutes and you might find her so sad.

To top it off, it seems that Ran and Ming were sharing a same nightmare that involves Ikari last night. They had witnessed in their dream that the vixen was beaten badly with a pole by a man that seems so familiar to them. She had barely enough power to retreat to an alley, to seclude herself as her death is coming.

"Ming, something is wrong with Ikari. Let's go," she cuddled the Glaceon's 'hat... thingy' before taking her on Ran's back. Ming replies with a purr, between excitement and worry, as she is lifted.

_Let's get back to the Firelight Fountain..._

When Kogoro regained his senses, he still manages to see Ikari's tails as she turns right. He then looks for her on the first right junction. She's well aware of this, and pants a breath of relieve, as it buys her more than enough time for the wait.

As he decides he won't be able to find her around this alley, he walks back to the Firelight Fountain, only to be ambushed by someone as he turns left to the main alley. This someone is so similar to a typical female Fire Nation soldier, except she has six wings on her back, dark amber hair, and she's armed with a pair of gauntlets. At a glance, she seems more of an angel (a seraph, to be exact) than a demon, but no one knows who she is actually. Oh, did I mention she's floating in the air?

With a swift move, she kicked him on the stomach, then gave him a punch so hard he flies straight to the Firelight Fountain. With fervor, she chases her prey with a swift move, giving him a slash as she bypasses him. He dodged it in time.

Of course, the street fight takes the attention of the Dai Li. But as they know that Kogoro was involved in the fight, trying to launch fists of fire at the 'angel' that picks him off from the air, Xu, a Dai Li senior officer swore under his breath, 'Shit, the rumor is true!'

'What rumor, Commander?' asked a young, prodigious, Dai Li officer, Xian, in whisper.

'Long Feng's right hand man is a Fire Nation spy!' he whispered.

'How can that be him?' Xian asked in return.

'The scar on his left cheek says it all. For now, arrest the woman and Akechi. Got it? I'll handle the woman, you handle him.'

'Womanizer,' mumbled Xian in annoyance.

"Aiming at a sentient flying being is no easy task, youngster," Xu retorted in return as he heard Xian's mumble. But the winged angel knew they'll fire fists of hard earth at her, so she dodged them in time. Taking a thin whip of water from the fountain, she tied the two Dai Li officers and froze the whip. Kogoro, however, didn't realize it, and an earthen fist hit him square in the face.

'Sh-she must be a heaven-sent warrior! How come she's flying while tying us up with waterbending?' whispered Xian. Fortunately for them, the frozen whip tying them is thin, and as they broke free, they retreated away. The fight, however, attracted crowd attention.

'Sorry, I just had to do this for the sake of the city,' the winged angel mumbled while Kogoro's stumbling from the fist. As he regained his stance, she readies hers. He sends her a fire breath, and she got struck by one. Again, instead of flinching from pain, she doesn't seem to be bothered from the fire, instead reveling the power. She didn't see a punch coming to her, through, and she was sent flying by Kogoro's punch, having learned not to firebend against this angel the hard way. He then pulls his pair of hooked swords and starts swinging at her, making her more cautious in approaching and picking him up. Kogoro's a skillful hook-swordsman, however, and he struck her at least three times in the duel, two of which was made when the hooked swords were linked together.

Frustrated at close-ranged attempts, she then bent the water from the fountain and soaks him. Sending blasts after blasts, she cornered him into a wall, then bends the minute amount of water below him to make him slip, landing at his butt first. With a final water blast, she freezes the water around him, immobilizing him. She then rushes for him, pressing his chest and forehead by thumbs. A few minutes later, she releases the grip, but not the man's frozen prison.

Utterly exhausted, she spotted Ran and Ming arriving just in time. 'Looking for your lost Ninetales, I presume? Come with me,' she asked by telepathy. Without any word, the three left the crowd, walking to the alley Ikari passed before the angel appeared. As they arrived on the spot, the angel sits, and Ran crouches, if only to have their eyes at similar height.

"How did you know I'm looking for her?" she asked after they arrived.

"The fox transformed into the angel you now see, just after she placed a curse upon... that Fire Nation spy," Ikari answered, her speech halted for a while, conflicting how she should address Kogoro.

"My father is a spy? I don't remember father told me anything about it," Ran was surprised, of course.

"_Used to be_. But aside from that, you heard me well. He did his job well to silence Ba Sing Se about the Hundred Years' War, using Long Feng and the Dai Li he led. However, after the War was over, a whispering campaign consumed his image back in the Fire Nation and he was declared a traitor. He was able to control the next leader of the Dai Li, but that leader died two years ago. Unable to control the current one, he fell into crimes, using me as his weapon of revenge. It's not to easy to stay stoic when the one you protected with your live betrays you."

"It's alright, dear. I know it's not easy for your conscience to curse innocents under his pressure," Ran comforts, giving her a hug and patting her back, then asked, "What about Ming?"

"Recently, we discovered she's a firebender. It puts her in a mental conflict, it affects her body as well. Her inner heat and frost is competing over each other. An excessive inner heat may kill her at her current state; an excessive inner frost may remove her firebending. I might be able to relieve her of the mental conflict," she answered. "Sweetie, come here," Ikari motioned Ming and then places her hands on her back.

A few moments later, Ming seems to be healed, but with it comes another problem. The angel fell unconscious for a few minutes after Ming was healed. As she regained it, she told Ming to wake Ran up, who fell asleep. Ming puts her frozen paw to her hand, much to her discomfort.

"What's up?" asked Ran as she awakes. Ming motioned her to the angel.

"Listen. Soon, my time here comes to an end. Can I ask you a few things?" Ikari asked. Ran only nods.

"Take care of Ming. For me. She's like a younger sister to me. You may be an earthbender, but you have a firebender to train. You should register Ming as a firebender to the Lotus so they can train her," Ikari sobs as she caresses Ran's strawberry-cut hair, to which Ran just nods.

"After I left this world, sink my body on Lake Laogai. I know it's bordering cruelty to leave a fire pokemon's corpse to the water, but I hope they'll understand if it's its last will." Ran caresses the angel's hair in return as she says, "I will. If you please, I'll try to cleanse your name."

"I can't be happier for it. After I passed, your father will be completely disabled by his insanity. Anytime you're losing your spirit, you're not alone. There's Ming, the Lotus, and finally... you have me in your memory," she replied. "Thank you," is all Ran can say.

"I should be the one thanking you. You've always been there after he forced a hunt on me. More importantly, you're here to comfort me in my last moments. Good bye, it was so good when we were together." Ikari sobbed. She then let off a sigh, "Oh, Azure Heaven, when will this regret end?"

Startled, Ran asked, "Ikari, what's that for?" Her question left unanswered for eternity, for shortly after the angel lets off a bright flash. After the flash subsides, it leaves a dying Ninetales the two are familiar with, letting off a final whine before she passes away. Some of her silver tails are curling around Ran, in a sense hugging her. Her back and right foreleg was scarred.

Ming shots Ran a concerned look, to which she replies as she grooms her 'hat', "She's gone, dear. For good." Although Ming found it uncomfortable, if not to her inner heat, to walk the street in the middle of the first day of summer, Ming knew that Ran has Ikari's corpse to carry. Without words, they walked to the Firelight Fountain.

* * *

_~ Prophecy of the Fox ~_

* * *

As they arrived at the Firelight Fountain, Ran was hailed as a hero by the crowd. Of course, she didn't knew what does she hailed for, "Why the hail?"

"You have slain the Ninetales with the silver-tipped tails terrorizing the Fountain!" answered a man.

"You mean, _I_ ended _her_ terror?" asked Ran in return. The man nods firmly.

"If anyone is the hero, it's the fox herself," Ran proclaimed, leaving most of the crowd shocked. "She had been forced by her master to do his bidding. It takes a lot of courage to take the resistance and turn the tables on him. It was she who transformed into the angel, neutering the Fire Nation spy who uses the Dai Li to silence you during the Hundred Years' War. I was only there to comfort her final moments."

"How can he control the Dai Li if he's not an earthbender of the highest degree?" asked a woman in the crowd. The Dai Li is a secret earthbending police, you see.

"He used to be Long Feng's right-hand man. If you wish to control a big organization, a corrupted leader of the organization is a excellent medium," answered Ran. Things finally clicked on the mind of some of the crowd.

"Now, if you please, may I leave?" Ran asked, before she unceremoniously leaves the crowd.

_A few moments later, Northwestern Laogai Lakefront..._

As Ran arrives at Northwestern Laogai Lakefront, she met someone she wouldn't expect: Jin. The rumor that Fire Lord Zuko will marry her _this spring_ is false, but it's not exactly true that they won't be married. A minor miscommunication have delayed the marriage well past the spring. She was seen with Hikari and Xue, the three splashing water against each other. (Jin's companion Pokemon is an earthbending Shelgon named Shiryuu, who had only evolved recently.) As they spotted Ran going to dump a Ninetales' body in the water, Jin asked, "Is it still alive?"

"I wouldn't do it if it wasn't her last wish," Ran replied, her tear stars to drop.

"I can't remember you've registered a Ninetales to the Lotus," mumbled Jin.

"She's more of a family pet, frankly. She died after sacrificing her life to end the terror my father caused by using her as his tool of revenge," at this time Ran lost her cool and cries. It was not for long, for Jin's Shiryuu stumbled at Ran (but not Ming, fortunately), sending her off to the waterand lands there face-first, but Hikari caught her in time. She then told her, "It's alright. I once witnessed my companion attempting suicide." It earns a glare from Xue, almost earning Hikari the experience of having Xue bloodbent her, but other than that, there was nothing eventful as Ikari's body slowly sinks down into the base of Lake Laogai.

_Meanwhile, at the Firelight Fountain..._

Kogoro only regained his consciousness by sunset, while everyone looks at him. Of course, he didn't know that it was his pet (or tool of revenge?) he fought against. The water prison Ikari had made is all but gone, leaving a pool of water around him. He remembers that he's still holding his pair of hook swords, but he is startled as he looks upon it. _He sees his hook swords were made of gold_. However, everyone else sees that the hook swords were still made of iron.

Kogoro then touches one of the light poles around the fountain. Much to his surprise, he (and only he) sees that the light pole turned into gold as well.

Coincidentally, Long Feng was having a dinner at a restaurant near the Fountain. Looking at his lost 'friend', Kogoro quickly approaches him, hugging him.

"Long Feng! How are you?" he squealed. Long Feng, having heard of his true self, tries to get Kogoro off him in a stern voice, "I've heard enough about you. We're friends no more!" Kogoro, however, sees Long Feng as a speaking statue made of gold. This drove him into insanity. Long Feng knew this, and he called the Dai Li to help him sending Kogoro to an asylum.

* * *

_Six years later, Beifong Metalbending Academy..._

Ran was sitting alone (and by it, I really meant alone _alone_; Ming was sleeping at Ran's dorm room) at the academy's front lawn, seemingly crying, either out of grief or shame. The Lotus sent her to the academy to hone the metalbending skills she had accidentally shown.

The day was exactly six years after the fox's death. Earlier that day, she and Toph, her metalbending teacher, along with their companion pokemons,visited Kogoro in the asylum. What happens there embarrasses not only Ran, but also Toph. Only then Toph understood the severity of Kogoro's insanity.

* * *

_Flash back – several hours past, an asylum near Ba Sing Se..._

As Kogoro sees Ran and Toph in front of his cell, Kogoro rushes to give Ran a hug, a habit which annoys her every time she visits her father. With her metalbending teacher at the scene, though, it embarrasses her to no end.

Just as Kogoro hugs Ran, the man starts to see things. As usual, Kogoro had never learned his lessons that Ran is not going to be transformed into gold, but his next action – which she didn't foreseen – is what embarrasses her. After Kogoro cries for having 'transformed' her daughter into gold, he then asks if there are any metalbenders around the cell, wishing to see her daughter move. He heard tales of metalbenders from his cellmate – which is a firebender too – who had recovered his sanity after Ran's last visit.

Toph answered groggily as she scratches her head,"Umm... I _am_ a metalbender myself, but I can't perceive any metal around her." Although Toph is blind, she can perceive the world around her by a 'seismic sense' she had developed since her youth to offset her blindness. This technique can only be used to detect things that sticks on the ground, and she had to bare her feet for her seismic sense to work well. Walking barefoot is a normal trait earthbenders possess, though.

"She turned into gold. Please, do anything to heal her," whined Kogoro.

"You mean, Ran? She's alright," Toph cocks her eyebrows as she starts to see the problem.

"What are you speaking about? She has turned into a statue of gold," Kogoro whined again.

"Even if she _is_, I can't bend pure metals like gold yet," Toph states, cutting his 'hopes' off.

'Sifu Toph, if you don't please,...' Ran tried to persuade Toph from further actions. It was Toph's insistence that made her accompanied Ran to ensure she won't run away, not the other way around. After all, Toph knew Ran was sincere when she told her she's going to visit her father, and she wanted to know how her father's doing.

"Okay, okay, we're off this place," answered Toph, full of confusion on what's happening around her. She pulls Ran out of the cell. Ming and Jun – Toph's Stoutland – hurried out as well, only to hear a dose of unsavory curses Toph launches upon Ran. All these curses throws the four out of the asylum.

* * *

_Flash forward – the current affair..._

"I'm so sorry. I didn't expect your father to be so... misguided from that curse," a hand finds itself on Ran's shoulder.

"Is that you...," asked Ran, pretty assured that it was Toph.

"No, Ran. It's me," answered the voice. The voice was eerily familiar to her.

"Ikari? Was it you?" Ran's mind clicked after a few moments.

"Yes, it's me," said the voice. Ran turned back to see the angel she encountered exactly six years ago and hugs her.

'Good luck for the exam, honey. Take care of Ming,' she closes. After that, the angel vanishes.

'What exam?' Ran can only scratch her head in confusion.

Toph, being blind, cannot see what's abound even if she was near Ran, although she can swear she's hearing things. She was going to ask for apologies for her curses back at the asylum. As she approaches Ran, she offers a hug.

"I'm sorry for the curses," Toph put it simply as they hugs each other.

"It's okay, Sifu Toph," Ran replied.

"Thanks. By the way, I wouldn't expect to have it this way, but considering your progress thus far, I'll give you a test in two weeks," Toph told her. Soon, they heard a roar – a dragon's roar.

Ran then spotted a familiar face: Jin, or rather, _Fire Lady_ Jin. She was riding atop Shiryuu (of course, Shiryuu's a Salamence now), looking for the academy after being informed that Ran is having a metalbending training. She intended to inform Ran about a finding she found among Lotus members who have a 'companion'.

As Jin descended off Shiryuu, she made an 'entrance', "So, the prophecy that was abuzz during Kyoshi's era in the Fire Nation had been realized six years ago in the place where we exchanged first kisses, eh?" Her entrance successfully startled the two of them. Ran gave her a shaky Fire Nation salute, mostly for kicks. Upon spotting this, Jin giggles, "Just cut it off, Ran. You're not supposed to give me that kind of salute, being an Earth Kingdom citizen. Besides," as two then performs the Lotus' 'secret handshake', she then continues, "we're fellow Lotus to boot."

'Is it safe to perform the handshake in front of innocents?' whispered Ran.

"It's okay. From this angle, there would be one lady who would be possibly able to see that, and that lady is blind. There's a dragon who can see it too, but it's a sympathizer," Toph overheard her whisper, but reassured them in the end.

"Thanks for the assurance, Sifu Toph," Ran said.

"You're welcome," Toph responded. "So, what is it?" she then asked to Jin.

"We're finding some strange phenomena over a number of Lotus member who have a companion pokemon. For example, Hikari. Do you remember the day Hikari was rumored to invent daylight bloodbending?" Jin replied, the last sentence pronounced slower.

"Ngg... yes, I suppose I remember that," Ran didn't sure if she remember the rumor.

"She told me that as she slowly masters the skill, she doubt if the skill she developed involves bloodbending. Her doubts were proven true when the Avatar asked her to bloodbend him. The characteristic forced motion was not there, and although he's floating, he still able to control his body as normal. It felt more like... telekinesis, he says," Jin starts, in a concerned tone.

"Telekinesis? What the heck is that?" Toph asked.

"Basically, moving something without having it touched. The only thing deemed possibly reasonable for that ability was Xue," Jin told them.

"Xue? Wait a minute, that waterbending Gardevoir we played with a month before you're married?" Ran was surprised to hear it.

"Yup," Jin nodded. "You may argue all you want that Xue's waterbending skills were acquired from their strict training when she and Hikari was under her grandmother's supervision and their regular training after they joined the Lotus, but can you tell how Hikari can move things without having it touched?"

"Nope," replied the other two girls after some thinking.

"But if you think her case was strange, mine's downright crazy. Only after I married Fire Lord Zuko six years ago I am capable of earthbending. And since there is barely anyone willing to teach a Fire Lady earthbending – probably because they'd assume she'd be a firebender or a non-bender – unless she developed the symptoms herself, my prime suspect is Shiryuu," she continued.

"That's really strange. I haven't heard an earthbender exhibits their first signs by the time one's over fifteen," Toph commented.

"Yes, that's downright strange. There's a few other Lotus members who develops powers similar to their companion Pokemon and the other way 'round. My hubby and Rin, his Milotic, developed similar traits. She once sighted creating azure flame, like his sister used to do, and just before I was appointed to lead the Dragoon, she was capable of lightning generation."

"Blue flames? I hope she's not as stable as Azula was ten years ago," Toph let off a sarcastic remark as she was surprised to hear it, earning her a glare from the aforementioned lunatic's sister-in-law.

"Good thing she has regained sanity after we were wed. But let's get back to the topic. This chicken-and-egg effect has caused debates among scholars in Ba Sing Se University, I heard," continued Jin.

"Jun is slowly developing a seismic sense similar to mine, too. But more importantly, Fire Lady Jin, I hope the debate won't spark another Hundred Years' War," Toph told the two. The three then laughed in unison.

"Good one, Sifu Toph," Ran commented.

"Yeah, I know that. But why do I sense some wire on her neck?" asked Toph as she had sensed a pool of wire on Shiryuu's neck.

"_His_. He's a metalbender, like you two. Since I led the Imperial Dragoons this late spring, he showed signs of a metalbender already. He's still learning to bend when he's flying," Jin explained.

"I think an elite army led by the royalty equals a double-edged sword, Jin," Ran said in concern.

"Don't worry," Jin playfully punched Ran's shoulder, almost making her tumbling down face-first to the Academy's floor.

'I can't believe she is that unstable for a metalbender,' mumbled Toph.

_Fin._

* * *

_**A/N: I incidentally broke my 'longest chapter' record as I completed this fic, and it also had the largest 'payload' in a chapter (this chapter has nearly 6000 words worth of payload, the prelude's included, while the next largest (****Wuzhang Plain****'s seventh chapter, which is written in Indonesian) has around 4300). *Ahem, are we speaking about computer virus there? – Ikari, the (deceased) Ninetales of in-fic Akechi family, visiting me as the mysterious seraph***_

_**There's a possibility about another fic for the Postbellum series, but then again, it's just a probability. From the looks of it, it'll feature a pokemon capable of specialized bending art, whose type does not match the element (s)he's bending. This far, four have been disclosed (Xue, Shiryuu, Rin, and Jun), plus one energybender (Ikari, now deceased). If you want to know if it will feature a new bending pokemon or an established one, you can only safely assume it won't feature Xue in the limelight (she had her time in **_**The Burden of Bending_, remember?) and it won't involve waterbending-based healing._  
**

_**If you're wondering, Hikari, Xue, and Jin who appeared in this fic are the same ones with the ones from **_**The Burden of Bending.**

**_For your information, Avatar Kuruk died at least 300 years before the Hundred Years' War, which was started by the Air Nomad Genocide, was instigated. As the Avatar, Kuruk was then succeeded by Kyoshi, then Roku, and, at the time the Postbellum series is running, Aang._  
**

**_(If you're familiar with _The Legend of Korra_, I'd hope the series would not gone well into Korra's era, but it might be proven it the other way. Only time can tell, really._ :3)  
**


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